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Why Heritage Matters

Heritage is so important for people like Shalom Lamm. Understanding the hardships one’s family had to face and the adversities they’ve overcome is extremely important to understand for many. Each family is built and bent in all different directions. Knowing a family’s heritage and ancestry can be beneficial in the long run. Many people study history because they believe they learn from such hardships. When a family member has been through a war or a front line worker for a pandemic, let’s say, there is a lot of appreciation that comes from that. For example, there have been many people that have been related to monarchs from hundreds of years ago. Many royal families have dissipated over time but that doesn’t mean that people stop being related to them. No matter how cruel or kind the monarch was, it’s important to connect the dots between one’s heritage. Learning about the mistakes or progress their ancestors made is extremely beneficial to anyone. It’s also a way of preserving the memories and culture of a family. 

The best way to do this is by recording the history of a family. When family members are discussing such topics, grab a pen and pencil, and start making a tree. This is great for people who want to trace family members and see how far back they can go. Heritage is extremely important for individuals around the world. Knowing bits and pieces about where one’s family came from is an extremely exciting process to learn about. Many Americans especially enjoy learning about their heritage because they are technically a derivation of immigration. At some point, someone a long, long time ago either decided to transition themselves to the United States via Ellis Island or even before that. Many people go to Ellis Island to see records of people who have been related to them. It opened in 1892 and was basically an immigration station that saw millions of people pass through its gates. There are medical records, language records, and signatures of family members dating back over a hundred years. Once people gather the knowledge they need, they can track the names of these people and connect the dots going forward. There is such beauty and resilience that comes with learning about all the hardships people had to endure just to be where they are now. Many immigrants traveled from all over the world to live out the American dream and have a prosperous future for their families. It’s remarkable for people to see how much has changed since those times. Even looking back at old pictures and reminiscing on the past have been activities many, like  Shalom Lamm, enjoy doing. If one is confused about where to gain information about their heritage, they should try Ancestry.com or 23andme. These series use DNA tracking to best formulate where a person was from geographically speaking and may pull up any relatives around the world as well. 

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Pamela is a television journalist, humor writer and novelist. Her first novel, Allegedly, was released in 2015 by St. Martin’s Press. The book is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. She and her husband, Daniel, have a 3-year-old son, Carter.

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